Colossians 3:16b
Admonish One Another
Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall
Col. 3:16b . . .and admonishing one another in all wisdom, . . .
As noted in our previous message, teaching is a vital part of church life. Every believer is expected to do it somehow somewhere in some type of setting. Now we look at admonishing, which entails correction, warning people of dangerous behaviors, challenging them to change their ways from wrong to right.
This can be difficult because the listeners often do not want to change. When this is the case, teachers who need to admonish are immediately at a disadvantage.
They are trying to teach and apply truth, but the listeners are not interested in anything they disagree with, or that disrupts something they enjoy doing, even sin. People can grow to being insensitive to God's truth regarding a needed behavior change. If this happens, they want no demands made on their lifestyles.
Some go so far as to join a church only if it agrees with their unscriptural beliefs. They sacrifice the admonishing that Bible truth graciously provides in order to know they will not have their personal preference in a matter contested.
Paul, in his writings, regularly admonished his readers, but often only after he felt compelled to reprove their prior lack of receptivity to his words. His main difficulty often was not his subject, but his listeners. Their ho hum, take it or leave it, attitude was dangerous. It still is. We need to know and avoid what causes people to reject admonition. What culprits can start us on this downward cycle?
One, pride can bring us down. It is easy for us to slip into being so proudly self-assured of our own knowledge that we can begin to think we are smarter than the Bible. A Pastor or teacher can admonish, but proud listeners do not learn.
The moment people decide to disobey the Bible, they find it easy to resist any admonitions. We must receive admonition without pride, and "humbly receive the implanted word" (James 1:21). Otherwise, admonitions make no impression.
Two, a slow-growing dullness toward the Bible. Beware when reading it grows more sporadic, or when groups, preaching, and spiritual truths become less interesting. Tell-tale warning signs of this dangerous lethargy include decreased involvement in church life, disinterest in the things of God, sporadic attendance at worship services. This neglect easily results in open sin, terrible backsliding.
Avoid any creeping disrespect for the Bible. Never forget whose Word we would be slighting. Scripture deserves reverence because it is God's book. Ever approach it as holy. The Thessalonians received the Word not as a human message, but as "the message of God" (1 Thess. 2:13). What the Bible says, God says.
Beware Scriptural haphazardness. Many who attend church are careless, hearing only out of habit, and coming solely for fellowship. Be sure you learn what is taught. People sometimes listen to the Word for years, but then fall away. Why? Because the message was not embraced. The Word never was never internalized.
Three, the burdens of life. Our Master said, "The worries of this age" (Matt. 13:22) can choke the Word. The pains of life can become almost too sharp to bear. When our lives languish in anguish, we sometimes choose to escape our thoughts.
The mind, as a defense mechanism, can want to "shut down" in times of pain. Sadly, it is often the spiritual that the mind casts out; less time is spent in prayer, the Bible, group, and church. We know the mind does need recuperation and rest at times, but whatever else we might have to let go in order to rest our minds, do not lose our hunger and thirst for prayer, the Bible, and God's people.
Never shut these off, for they are our best hope to be lifted up. Are we hurting? Pray more than ever. Are we harboring anger at God? Be in His Word more than ever. Do we feel we are losing our mind? Run toward God's people.
Never let troubles drive us farther from God. Let them drive us closer to Him. Don't waste our sufferings. In times of trouble, more than ever before, we need the undergirding that only prayer, the Bible, and God's people can provide.
Four, the culprit may be letting astonishment and awe at a lesson be enough of a response to it. Some people are so sensitive that they can watch a TV ad about world hunger, and be crying before the commercial ends. And yet, this same person may never lift a finger to do anything about the problem. Beware the danger of being filled with amazement, yet not heeding. Admiration does not change us.
It is easy to enjoy a worship service so totally that the feeling itself becomes our ultimate response to it. Don't do this. The awe must open a door through which admonition is allowed to enter us. Following Jesus requires surrendered obedience. When we hear a strong Bible lesson, be not only astonished; also be admonished.
Five, the culprit may be overemphasizing intellectual knowledge of the Bible. Beware not keeping our practice up to the level of our Bible knowledge.
Many divorce God's known laws from everyday life, thinking if religion's trimmings are maintained, obedience is not really important. This makes the Bible a couch rather than a coach. One of my cousins works with vile and vulgar men who give up meat during Lent. Their religion has become a salve to soothe their consciences so that sinning can be more comfortable. Instead of a stimulus to good living, it becomes compensation for bad living. For many, religion is an insurance policy to cover all bases after sinning rather than incentive to stop before sinning.
The Bible must become the warp and woof of our actions. Otherwise, we can find ourselves bragging on Scripture, and at the same time breaking it. God is not interested in praise for His words at the expense of obedience to it. King Saul disobeyed God, and then offered sacrifices, thinking it would appease God. The prophet Samuel harshly rebuked Saul, "To obey is better than sacrifice. . . .Insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king" (1 Samuel 15:22-23 NAS).
Our knowledge of the Bible always stays ahead of our inward and outward conformity to it. We know more than we do. Reading and knowing the Bible are not enough, however much we learn. Our goal is to comply with the truth we claim to believe. We need the Holy Spirit to drive home in us the implications and applications of the truths we are reading, to push out any resistance to obedience.
Information is useless if it is not allowed to change our thoughts and behavior. If unwilling to change, there is no real learning. Truth unapplied is truth wasted. The life we live, not the facts we learn, determines the level of our Christian maturity. A developing Christian is the one who is pressing ahead to increased obedience. We must learn the Word in order to apply it to our daily life.
The church is a vocational school, where we learn in order to do. Believers advance to step two not by knowing what step one is, but by doing step one.
We enter higher training by succeeding in former exercises. The mind has not truly embraced an idea the will has refused to obey. Receive admonition with a child-like heart. Yearn to know and do God's will. Take in truth, and act on it.
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